South Bend Homes in the National Media Again

by Nick Molnar on November 3, 2006

In June, South Bend real estate was the subject of some national media attention (view the blog post here), and has popped onto the radar once again.

The Christian Science Monitor has an article “Real Estate Slump Tough on Midwest” on its Web-site which describes the surplus of South Bend homes under $50,000 on the market. It includes the media’s favorite housing statistic – median sales price. The median sales price is the price at which half of the houses sold for more and half the houses sold for less during any given period. It is useful to see what segment of the market is active, but is not a good statistic to compare home values over time because the figures don’t compare the same houses over time.

The bottom line is that the bottom is not falling out of the South Bend Area housing market. The Greater South Bend-Mishawaka MLS reports 375 sales in October 2006 and 353 in October 2005. The South Bend Area has a housing market with something for nearly everyone. Our median sales price stands out as affordable compared to the national average so the media uses it to shock readers used to six-figure starter homes. Don’t misread this statistic to mean that South Bend is full of substandard homes. It runs the gamut.

Thank you for maintaining this blog. I have enjoyed reading many of the articles.

I found the numbers that you listed in this article interesting, and it gave me an idea that I wanted to pass along to you:

Maybe you could give a monthly update on the state of the South Bend area housing market. For example, how many homes are currently listed in different price categories and how many homes sold in those price categories in the previous month.

I don’t think it is possible for a non-Realtor to get that information today. And I think there are a lot of people like myself who like to monitor the local housing market even though they are not trying to buy or sell a home.